Weight loss support with a spiritual element. I will keep you posted on my journey in the hopes that you will join me in becoming the person God wants you to be. Don't worry about being religious. Come as you are.

It's hard for me to place a value on some of the areas but it is a valuable exercise. Doing this exercise could help with any resolutions you may want to tackle.

A few ongoing resolutions of mine are:

1. spending less time on the internet.

2. be a better housekeeper.

3. spend more time outside.

4. be more productive.

5. reach my goal weight and maintain.

6. write an ebook of daily readings.

These are very poorly written goals because they don't meet the requirements of goal setting.

Goals should be:

measureable
under my control
have a time limit
be realistic

They are all realistic and under my control.

However, there is no time limit nor are they measureable.

1. I will only spend one hour per day on the internet.
2. I will clean house on Wednesdays each week. (like the sixth Wednesday of each month - just kidding :-)
3. I will spend 1/2 hour each day outside weather permitting.
4. I will "make something right" when I go into a room. I will quit looking at things that need to be done and ignore them. I will do things like "take that empty flower pot to the greenhouse" or "get that cobweb I have been noticing for days".
5. I will reach my goal weight of 165 pounds at a rate of 5 lb. per month - I will figure this out when I weigh myself on January 1.
6. I will work on my ebook for 1/2 hour each day.

The only one that I'll probably follow through on is Number 5. I am planning on breaking the others pretty quickly but it sounds good.

WORLD RENOWNED HEART SURGEON SPEAKS OUT ON WHAT REALLY CAUSES HEART DISEASE

We physicians with all our training, knowledge and authority
often acquire a rather large ego that tends to make it difficult to
admit we are wrong. So, here it is. I freely admit to being wrong. As a
heart surgeon with 25 years experience and having performed over 5,000
open-heart surgeries, today is my day to right the wrong with medical
and scientific fact.

I trained for many years with other
prominent physicians labeled “opinion makers.” Bombarded with
scientific literature, continually attending education seminars, we
opinion makers insisted heart disease resulted from the simple fact of
elevated blood cholesterol.

The only accepted therapy was
prescribing medications to lower cholesterol and a diet that severely
restricted fat intake. The latter of course we insisted would lower
cholesterol and heart disease. Deviations from these recommendations
were considered heresy and could quite possibly result in malpractice.

It Is Not Working!

These recommendations are no longer scientifically or morally
defensible. The discovery a few years ago that inflammation in the
artery wall is the real cause of heart disease is slowly leading to a
paradigm shift in how heart disease and other chronic ailments will be
treated.

The long-established dietary recommendations have
created epidemics of obesity and diabetes, the consequences of which
dwarf any historical plague in terms of mortality, human suffering and
dire economic consequences.

Despite the fact that 25% of the
population takes expensive statin medications and despite the fact we
have reduced the fat content of our diets, more Americans will die this
year of heart disease than ever before.

Statistics from the
American Heart Association show that 75 million Americans currently
suffer from heart disease, 20 million have diabetes and 57 million have
pre-diabetes. These disorders are affecting younger and younger people
in greater numbers every year.

Simply stated, without
inflammation being present in the body, there is no way that cholesterol
would accumulate in the wall of the blood vessel and cause heart
disease and strokes. Without inflammation, cholesterol would move freely
throughout the body as nature intended. It is inflammation that causes
cholesterol to become trapped.

Inflammation is not complicated —
it is quite simply your body’s natural defense to a foreign invader
such as a bacteria, toxin or virus. The cycle of inflammation is perfect
in how it protects your body from these bacterial and viral invaders.
However, if we chronically expose the body to injury by toxins or foods
the human body was never designed to process, a condition occurs called
chronic inflammation. Chronic inflammation is just as harmful as acute
inflammation is beneficial.

What thoughtful person would
willfully expose himself repeatedly to foods or other substances that
are known to cause injury to the body? Well, smokers perhaps, but at
least they made that choice willfully.

The rest of us have
simply followed the recommended mainstream diet that is low in fat and
high in polyunsaturated fats and carbohydrates, not knowing we were
causing repeated injury to our blood vessels. This repeated injury
creates chronic inflammation leading to heart disease, stroke, diabetes
and obesity.

Let me repeat that: The injury and inflammation in
our blood vessels is caused by the low fat diet recommended for years
by mainstream medicine.

What are the biggest culprits of
chronic inflammation? Quite simply, they are the overload of simple,
highly processed carbohydrates (sugar, flour and all the products made
from them) and the excess consumption of omega-6 vegetable oils like
soybean, corn and sunflower that are found in many processed foods.

Take a moment to visualize rubbing a stiff brush repeatedly over soft
skin until it becomes quite red and nearly bleeding. You kept this up
several times a day, every day for five years. If you could tolerate
this painful brushing, you would have a bleeding, swollen infected area
that became worse with each repeated injury. This is a good way to
visualize the inflammatory process that could be going on in your body
right now.

Regardless of where the inflammatory process occurs,
externally or internally, it is the same. I have peered inside
thousands upon thousands of arteries. A diseased artery looks as if
someone took a brush and scrubbed repeatedly against its wall. Several
times a day, every day, the foods we eat create small injuries
compounding into more injuries, causing the body to respond continuously
and appropriately with inflammation.

While we savor the
tantalizing taste of a sweet roll, our bodies respond alarmingly as if a
foreign invader arrived declaring war. Foods loaded with sugars and
simple carbohydrates, or processed with omega-6 oils for long shelf life
have been the mainstay of the American diet for six decades. These
foods have been slowly poisoning everyone.

How does eating a simple sweet roll create a cascade of inflammation to make you sick?

Imagine spilling syrup on your keyboard and you have a visual of what
occurs inside the cell. When we consume simple carbohydrates such as
sugar, blood sugar rises rapidly. In response, your pancreas secretes
insulin whose primary purpose is to drive sugar into each cell where it
is stored for energy. If the cell is full and does not need glucose, it
is rejected to avoid extra sugar gumming up the works.

When your full cells reject the extra glucose, blood sugar rises producing more insulin and the glucose converts to stored fat.
What does all this have to do with inflammation? Blood sugar is
controlled in a very narrow range. Extra sugar molecules attach to a
variety of proteins that in turn injure the blood vessel wall. This
repeated injury to the blood vessel wall sets off inflammation. When you
spike your blood sugar level several times a day, every day, it is
exactly like taking sandpaper to the inside of your delicate blood
vessels.

While you may not be able to see it, rest assured it
is there. I saw it in over 5,000 surgical patients spanning 25 years who
all shared one common denominator — inflammation in their arteries.
Let’s get back to the sweet roll. That innocent looking goody not only
contains sugars, it is baked in one of many omega-6 oils such as
soybean. Chips and fries are soaked in soybean oil; processed foods are
manufactured with omega-6 oils for longer shelf life. While omega-6’s
are essential -they are part of every cell membrane controlling what
goes in and out of the cell – they must be in the correct balance with
omega-3’s.

If the balance shifts by consuming excessive
omega-6, the cell membrane produces chemicals called cytokines that
directly cause inflammation.

Today’s mainstream American diet
has produced an extreme imbalance of these two fats. The ratio of
imbalance ranges from 15:1 to as high as 30:1 in favor of omega-6.
That’s a tremendous amount of cytokines causing inflammation. In today’s
food environment, a 3:1 ratio would be optimal and healthy.

To
make matters worse, the excess weight you are carrying from eating
these foods creates overloaded fat cells that pour out large quantities
of pro-inflammatory chemicals that add to the injury caused by having
high blood sugar. The process that began with a sweet roll turns into a
vicious cycle over time that creates heart disease, high blood pressure,
diabetes and finally, Alzheimer’s disease, as the inflammatory process
continues unabated.

There is no escaping the fact that the more
we consume prepared and processed foods, the more we trip the
inflammation switch little by little each day. The human body cannot
process, nor was it designed to consume, foods packed with sugars and
soaked in omega-6 oils.

There is but one answer to quieting
inflammation, and that is returning to foods closer to their natural
state. To build muscle, eat more protein. Choose carbohydrates that are
very complex such as colorful fruits and vegetables. Cut down on or
eliminate inflammation- causing omega-6 fats like corn and soybean oil
and the processed foods that are made from them.

Animal
fats contain less than 20% omega-6 and are much less likely to cause
inflammation than the supposedly healthy oils labeled polyunsaturated.
Forget the “science” that has been drummed into your head for decades.
The science that saturated fat alone causes heart disease is
non-existent. The science that saturated fat raises blood cholesterol is
also very weak. Since we now know that cholesterol is not the cause of
heart disease, the concern about saturated fat is even more absurd
today.

The cholesterol theory led to the no-fat, low-fat
recommendations that in turn created the very foods now causing an
epidemic of inflammation. Mainstream medicine made a terrible mistake
when it advised people to avoid saturated fat in favor of foods high in
omega-6 fats. We now have an epidemic of arterial inflammation leading
to heart disease and other silent killers.

What you can do is
choose whole foods your grandmother served and not those your mom turned
to as grocery store aisles filled with manufactured foods. By
eliminating inflammatory foods and adding essential nutrients from fresh
unprocessed food, you will reverse years of damage in your arteries and
throughout your body from consuming the typical American diet.

Dr. Dwight Lundell is the past Chief of Staff and Chief of Surgery at
Banner Heart Hospital , Mesa , AZ. His private practice, Cardiac Care
Center was in Mesa, AZ. Recently Dr. Lundell left surgery to focus on
the nutritional treatment of heart disease. He is the founder of Healthy
Humans Foundation that promotes human health with a focus on helping
large corporations promote wellness.

bHIP’s BLD Pro-biotic, as
featured in Harper’s Bazaar Magazine, is an all-natural source of
essential enzymes. Additionally, the supplement DAILY is a 4 in 1
vitamin, mineral, anti-oxidant and superfood that has the highest ORAC
Value scored for quality of anti-oxidants and superfoods; both KEY in
reducing inflammation in the body. For product details, email
fostergrant@fhwds.com or visit www.bhipglobal.us/foundingmember.

The bolded areas are from me. This information was given to me by my sister: jensgyrations.blogspot.com - I am not pushing any products but this last paragraph was a part of the article so I kept it since I am using the doctor's information.

Saturday, December 29, 2012

After the thing with my friends last night I went to the grocery store. I bought a rotisserie chicken. This morning I took the meat off the carcass (HATE that job) and am simmering the bones, skin, etc., in the crock pot. This evening I will use my slotted spoon to get all the "stuff" out of the broth, cool it, put it in the fridge so I can skim off the fat in the morning and make a wonderful chicken vegetable soup. I will simmer the broth, chicken, most of a stalk of celery, most of a bag of carrots, and onion. I am up for suggestions - what else would you add that is not a carb food? I am thinking maybe some lentils or quinoa. Though they are a carb I think their glycemic index is pretty low.

I also got all the fixins' for salads ready. I have stopped using lettuce as it goes bad too quickly for the greens and use all spinach - it lasts longer. Lettuce really doesn't have much nutrition in it as I understand. I also have these storage units from Tupperware that have vents in them so as to release the gasses that cause vegetables to spoil more quickly. There are also ridges in the bottom that keep vegetables from sitting in moisture. I recommend them. The largest Tupperware container has the lettuce, broccoli, celery, and carrots in it. I have a separate bowl with green onions and red/yellow/green bell peppers in it so I can use it in my salads and they can also be used in scrambled eggs. If you go to Tupperware's web site please order through Cris Floyd. I think she is still a distributor and she is my hairdresser. Great gal.

I bought a nice roast as well - $13!!!!! The price almost scared me away but we will get several meals out of it. If I get to our local Meijer at about 10 am they have marked all the meats down that are dated that day 20%. I usually stock up then and either bring it home and freeze it or cook it.

is associated with obesity. This does seem like a no brainer to some extent. However it did get me to thinking about my own pains. Maybe you can identify.

I remember when I was at my heaviest after walking a while the arch in my right foot would fall or do something and I would absolutely be limping from the pain. That doesn't happen anymore.

I have lower back pain but then I think that is pretty common even in the slim to some extent. My knees hurt sometimes when I am exercising regularly but that clears up when I can't get exercise in regularly.

Did you know that every pound lost takes 4 pounds of pressure off of the knees? Read the full article here.

What pains do you have and do you feel they are exacerbated by extra weight? If you have lost a significant amount, have you noticed a lessening of any pains?

Last night was the last Christmas function for the year. Four friends and myself ate out and exchanged gifts. We do this every year. I had herb crusted cod, a salad (gave croutons to one of the friends), I replaced the potato with hot vegetables, had no bread. I did have some decaf coffee with kahlua for dessert. I am back on my game but remember back when I said I would be in the next digit for the new year? Scratch that.

Thursday, December 27, 2012

I wonder how many times I have played this mind game. Too many to count.

Notice how we used to make it virtuous in our minds to eat all the junk so it wouldn't be there to tempt us. We threw it in our bodies rather than in the trash where it belonged. I can see now that I was just trying to feel OK about the overeating.

Food does not have to be eaten just because it is there.

How much produce have we thrown out? I have thrown out more slimy lettuce, mushy peppers, carrots with growth on them, and celery that was limp than I have eaten. How about you?

Why are we horrified at the thought of throwing out some candy or other junk? That just wouldn't be right.

I have one last Christmas dinner this evening at my cousin's house. It's a great time but my New Year starts in the morning as we don't celebrate New Year's. We don't even stay up long enough to ring in the new year. We are such geezers. I will weigh on New Year's Day however and get started on these last 20 pounds or so. I am not going to see how much I can eat until then or eat all the junk in the house so it won't be there to tempt me but I will be paying more attention to doing what has to be done

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

We had a wonderful Christmas yesterday and I hope you did as well. It's nice for it to be over for another year and take a rest. We went to my Mom's first at noon and then Duane's sister's at 4 so it was a big day. I made several of my gifts this year. My niece and her daughter made me a gazing ball out of a bowling ball. They got the idea from Pinterest to take a bowling ball and glue pennies all over it. It is supposed to keep slugs away and keep hydrangeas blooming blue due to the copper in the pennies. Those kinds of gifts mean so much because I know as I make something for someone else I have that person in mind and now every time I see that gazing ball in my yard I will think of Farrah and Hailie.

I made a tote bag and put an apron in it that I made for my sister-in-law Marilyn who enjoys cooking. I need to make an apron for myself. How many times have I started cooking with good clothes on and gotten a grease spot on a top that I really like? Several.

I made tote bags for my sister Jenny and my cousin Sharon who lives in Florida. I have been making her something at Christmas now that we have found each other again and started exchanging pictures and letters. The tote bag is easy to mail. She knitted me some house slippers that I really love. They are so warm and fit great. I am going to tell her to make me another pair for next Christmas as I will probably have these worn out.

I made my nephew a coverlet that fits over a card table and makes it into a playhouse. There is a mailbox, windows with curtains, and a door. It's really cute if I do say so myself. I put a Christmas card in the mailbox for him. He is 4 so he should get a lot of good out of it along with his little sister Sydney.

Today we are under a blizzard warning. I just a call to hang on before starting the ATM route because banks will probably be closing early and the roads are horrendous. I love being snowed in (as long as we don't lose power). I will be sewing most of the day. I am now working on a quilt I need to finish up from a class I took. Two other sisters-in law loved the apron I made for Marilyn so between finishing quilt projects I will be making them aprons. I will then have nieces, my sister, and others so I imagine I have gotten something started. One can be made in an afternoon, takes only 5 fat quarters so I figure I can finish a project, make an apron, finish a project, make an apron and on and on until I get one for those who want one.

I have a great family on both sides. My Mom who is 86 stayed here last night. She will probably be here again tonight due to the blizzard. She has a sister on life support in a hospital in Indianapolis. If Mom loses that sister it will be the fourth one and the second one within a year. I think the last sister's death helped bring on her last TIA so if we lose this sister I don't want her to be alone if she has another mini-stroke. There were 6 girls and there will only be Mom and one sister left. Life goes on.

Monday, December 24, 2012

The world will take you at your own valuation. Your body will take you at your own valuation. Your business will take you at your own valuation; for the value that you really put upon yourself is the one that manifests.

Emmet Fox uses the word "manifest" a lot. He maintains that thoughts are things, they create vibrations, and what "manifests" in our lives is the result of our thoughts and beliefs. It's hard to argue with that.
When we manifest obesity, Emmet Fox would tell us that that is the value we place on ourselves. We are obese because we think and believe ourselves obese. This is what the world sees and takes us at our word so to speak. The successful business people I see usually look fit and trim.

When we start manifesting health and wellness through eating and exercise habits the body has to respond and take us at our word which manifests out of thought. Our thought life is important.

- and what you really believe, that you will demonstrate.

What will we manifest in 2013?

This is from another of Emmet Fox's books - The Beatitudes

If you want material prosperity, you must first think prosperity thoughts and then make a habit of doing so, for the thing that keeps most people poor is the sheer habit of poverty thinking. If you want congenial companionship, if you want to be loved, you must first think thoughts of love and good will. Like begets like, another way of stating the Great Law, which means that as a man soweth in his unseen thoughts, so shall he reap in that which is seen. "All things work together for good to those who love good", and to love good means to occupy oneself with thoughts of good.

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Rebecca has a very thought-provoking post here. I know some of you are not people of faith but the thought here can still speak to you as well.

I love the thought:

Whatever we feed will live to tempt us another day.

By the way, the FIRST "thieving rationalization" is

"it is just until....."

as if today doesn't really count or that we will deal with the issue later.

"Today always counts," she writes.

"If we fail to deal with issues today, they will deal with us tomorrow."

What are we really feeding when we overeat or eat poorly? We are feeding the temptation to continue.

If we don't make the choice to deal with our issues around food and eating today while we still have that choice, we could be dealing with diabetes or heart problems where there will be no choice but to deal with them.

"it is just until" what? After that we can always repeat this rationalization. Indefinitely? No, it's not indefinite; we will eventually have to pay the piper, the chickens will come home to roost, and all that.

Today always counts. We must put these bad habits to death, we must. Without being fed, they will die.

Saturday, December 22, 2012

***"We must reject
the idea that every time a law's broken, society is guilty rather than
the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each
individual is accountable for his actions."
Ronald Reagan

This statement can be applied to so many areas of our lives and the state of our nation.

It can be as common as the child who is not held accountable and made to bear the consequences of bad behavior or as big as a nation that cannot buckle down and correct poor spending habits. It can be as controversial as the criminal whose past is scrutinized and then behavior excused based on that. Which is the better way to go? Excusing criminal behavior because of extenuating circumstances knowing that we cannot make everything "fair" in the grand scheme of things or setting boundaries for behavior that are uniformly applied so that people know what the consequences will be. We have adults among us who could have been better shaped as children had there been intervention at a younger age. What really burns me is the amount of money wasted and given away to countries that hate us and then we don't have the resources for programs that could save some of our youth from lives of crime. We can get into the war debate but war is as old as mankind. Do a google search on the amount of pork in the stimulus bill or the pork in this latest bill to help the victims of Sandy and it will make you sick. The kicker is that the people who are willing to make the tough decisions to correct the financial mess we are in are either voted out of office, not elected in the first place, or demonized. Conservatives are the party that represents cutting back, restructuring, and changing social programs. Americans will have none of that. Go to YouTube and watch the Obamaphone lady rant. Democrats will have their permanent majority soon. They are very good at understanding human behavior and capitalizing on that. Give people things and you will get their vote. Be careful what you wish for.

Anyway - we can go ahead and eat the Christmas candy as long as we are willing to accept the consequences. Have the cookies and pie as long as the blood sugar spike is no surprise. Gain the 10 lbs. or more over the holidays but don't whine about it and lament that others can eat that stuff without gaining weight. We have a right to eat that stuff too don't we? The holiday will be ruined without eating until we have to get horizontal to get comfortable. We will feel left out if we don't get in line for the second helping.

There are also consequences for good food choices, wise choices for spending money, and deciding what our holidays will leave us with. We are accountable either way.

There is a law concerning calories in/calories out. There is a law about BMR/muscle. There is the law about insulin/weight gain. There is a law about hydration.

What laws are we willing to obey and what laws do we break and try to get away with it? If the scale catches us in the act, how do we accept the consequences?

Friday, December 21, 2012

I am also going to start drinking my coffee black. I use half & half. I read about a serving being 2 TBSP. on the carton and I am sure I have about 1/4 cup in each mug. I know - loser. I probably have 4 or 5 mugs a day of my decaf so I am getting in a pretty decent amount of calories just from that. This is the only dairy I have. I have resigned myself to decaf coffee. It doesn't have the "body" of the real stuff but my heart is affected and will take spells of beating hard and fast - probably not a good thing so I am buying some flavored decaf coffees and drinking them black. I tried other things for creaming - whole milk which I didn't care for and almond milk which was worse - how do you do that Norma? blek :-)

I got home yesterday from a 12 1/2 hour day in the armored truck and our electricity was off due to high winds. It didn't come back on for about 3 hours. We have a wood stove so we were warm - just couldn't see too well in the candle light. Today I ran a route and the blowing snow was so bad in some areas that the white out conditions caused me to have to use the telephone poles to keep it between the ditches. A woman of lesser skill would have been in the ditch.

So I guess I am just "tidying up" a few areas I knew needed attention. I have been thinking about my New Year's Resolutions. I like to make them because the New Year just seems like a new start. I am for sure going to finish off these last 20 pounds. I am thinking about publishing an e-book of daily readings for Kindle's of some of my posts. If you have a favorite or two, would you let me know? I also have a behavior I want to address - EATING TOO FAST.

I am not going to use the "I am starting on January 1" mentality to give myself permission to overeat until then because "I am starting on January 1". I am still exercising and drinking water and sticking to low-carb but there have been a few indiscretions. I poured one of them down the sink. I paid $9 for that bottle of wine and threw out about $6 of it. Serves me right.

Allan (Almost Gastric Bypass) is starting a new challenge. I am a challenge drop out. I never finish them. I am just not good at following eating and dieting rules. If you respond to that framework, Allan will give you as much help as he can and as much as you deserve.

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

I poured out most of a bottle of wine last night. The reason? So I wouldn't drink it. I have decided to give up alcohol completely. I see nothing wrong with having a glass of wine in the evening, however, my compulsive/addictive/obsessive/whatever personality changes that to a bottle of wine in the evening pretty easily. Sometimes I stick to a glass but I am not above finishing off the bottle. I then end up eating things that don't help the cause but hinder it. It isn't worth it.

Today my cousin is coming over from Indianapolis to Richmond to do some Christmas shopping. We always look forward to spending the day going from shop to shop, buying gifts, and helping to set the economy aright. We will have lunch somewhere and our mothers, who are sisters, will have the day to visit. They are both in their 80's and it's getting more difficult for them to join us for lunch with walkers and canes and unsteady feet. There were 6 sisters and 3 of them are gone now.

I have been working extra and missing my morning aerobics class. I went to body sculpt class last night. I am missing aerobics this morning due to the shopping and will miss it Friday due to running the route. I will get to body sculpt again tomorrow evening. We just do the best we can at this time of year don't we? Like pouring mostly full bottles of wine down the sink.

I do things like that when I get to the enough is enough point. I have blogged before about the year at Christmas before I retired students had given me fudge, cookies, candies, chocolate covered cherries, and so much more. On the way home from school that evening I stopped on main street in Centerville and threw all of it in a trash can. Didn't even take it home.

Sunday, December 16, 2012

The title statement is from "Around the Year With Emmet Fox". I like daily readings and there are three that I read each day. One is from C. S. Lewis, another from Overeaters Anonymous, and then Emmet Fox.

"Mind is cause, and experience is effect. If you do not like the experience or effect that you are getting, the obvious remedy is to alter the cause and then the effect will naturally alter too."

We create our lifestyles in our minds. Back in the days of the binge I remember thinking about eating and wanting to eat so badly. I knew I was going to binge but fought it. I would have that panic of a feeling and would just finally go ahead and binge so I could get it over with. This was all first in my mind.

Changing that was no easy task. There came a time when enough was enough. The reason the change is so hard is because of the emotional baggage. Our emotions can cause us to do things that we don't understand. The triggers are there but we can't seem to do the right thing. That neural pathway is well worn and we know the way to the binge and need very little help to trod that path once more.

The binge has served its purpose for me. I don't binge anymore and I can't tell you what purpose it served. It had to serve a purpose or I wouldn't have done it.

Think back on a successful day. What is different about that day? Why was there no binge? Will you have a binge on January 1? Probably not. Why not?

The bingeless days probably find you busy and focused.So stay busy and focused.

The bingeless days probably had some exercise in them. So exercise whether you are in the mood or not.

The bingeless days probably had the right foods and water in them. So eat the right foods and get in the water.

The bingeless days probably had you devoting time to others rather than dwelling on yourself. Do that too.

Change your lifestyle, You don't eat sugar anymore remember? If a binge is imminent, binge on fruits, vegetables, and lean meats. Eat almonds until they come out your ears. Drink water until you throw up. Believe me, it's a lot easier to stop eating almonds than M & M's.

I think this is a good idea for our last post of the year. Why not pick out what you feel were your best efforts of the past year. Since all of us are such great bloggers - how about our 5 best (in our humble opinion)?

On to a more serious topic.

The violence in our society has just been demonstrated once again. Liberals are already on their gun control rant. I understand that people have no use for repeating weapons but taking guns away from good people is not the way to solve this. Criminals will still have them. People must be able to defend themselves with the same level of force being using against them.

Would it be wiser to address violence and why people grow up learning to use weapons to solve problems? I would be quicker to blame Hollywood and video games than assault weapons. We are becoming a blood thirsty nation and people who watch violence and allow their kids to watch violence and saying it doesn't affect them are fools. At the very least, it desensitizes us. It doesn't even bother us to see the torture and killing. Shouldn't it bother us? We applaud Bruce Willis, Clint Eastwood, and Sylvester Stallone because they are the good guys and blood all over the place is OK if your cause is the right one. So kids watching this who are wronged at school or at the ballgame feel justified in using deadly force? If there was not a market for violence, it wouldn't be produced.

I just stopped following a blogger whose last post was on masturbation. He had practically nude women in the post. He would probably argue that it was art. He is a college professor. Does this not objectify, degrade, and demean women? Does this contribute to violence against women? Personal responsibility needs revisited. While he has every right to do this, should he? There are people with weak minds who have access to that. There are kids who are getting the wrong impression of women through posts like this.

None of us lives in a vacuum. What we do has ripple effects. Boundaries for behavior are a good thing. We need to set those boundaries ourselves. These can be the boundaries we set for eating, for expressing anger, for what we watch and listen to. If you have kids, be the parent and set the boundaries. They are young and can't separate what they see and hear from reality yet - that's what parents are for.

I grieve for the parents who have lost their child. I was thinking last night that many of them probably had the Christmas presents bought for a child they no longer have. I am a realist. It will happen again. Why? It's not because of assault weapons.

Friday, December 14, 2012

I haven't blogged for a while. It's so helpful to get things in print because as we write, we learn about ourselves as we tell others what's going on.

My thyroid acted up and that's why my weight has been fluctuating. After posting my last weight my weight went up 6 pounds in a short amount of time without a change of habits. I was back into the low 180's which does mess with my head but thankfully I was able to just accept the situation and continue. Yesterday I was back down to 178.5 which was encouraging just to see that digit after going back over 180 briefly. I had my thyroid tested and my TSH was .128 and it should be at least .4 so I have hyperthyroidism. I did have a small goiter for a time, read up on it, started taking kelp due to its high iodine content. The doctor could not find the goiter last time he checked. I was feeling kind of weird, my heart does this hard, fast beat periodically, and so this was a concern. I ran out of kelp and was reading the label before I bought more and the label read not to take kelp if one has hyperthyroidism so I didn't buy it. I have switched to decaf and don't eat a lot of salt because I do eat a lot of whole foods. I am sure I probably get more than I think I do because it is in everything it seems. It would seem that an overactive thyroid would cause weight loss rather than weight gain however.

The positive thing is that a short time of weight gain did not cause me to throw in the towel, go on a binge, stop drinking water, skip exercise as it would have done in the past. Why would anyone come this far and be this close to the goal and not finish up? I don't know. I have regained my weight twice. Leigh over at Poonapalooza spoke of this fear of maintenance. It is a real fear and one for which we must have a healthy respect. After people get used to us at our goal weights, will the accolades and the compliments stop? What will we talk about? We don't get a trophy for going across the finish line. When we get there and get used to it, will we think "Is this all there is"?

That number on the scale and that size we wear are the trophies we must cherish.